Wednesday, April 2, 2014

The Horn Book Magazine March/April 2014

I always look forward to receiving the latest issue of The Horn Book Magazine, but this one is extra special:  March/April 2014 is an issue all about illustration.

See the cover? That's Grace Lin's studio!  She is one of the illustrators who shared their favorite art media in a series of columns called Studio Views (more on that in a future post.) 

There's another reason why this is such a special issue for me: I have an article published in this issue about art notes -- illustrator's statements about the media and/or technique used in the creation of the artwork.  Being an illustrator and a librarian I've always been interested in the media used in picture books.  I wrote a piece about it, submitted to the Horn Book and it was accepted.  It is a true honor for me to be part of such a distinguished magazine about children's literature!

Here's an example of an art note from the adorable Here Comes the Easter Cat by Deborah Underwood, illustrated by Claudia Rueda:


"The art was made with ink and color pencils on white paper, surrounded by hundreds of cats (ink cats!)

Art notes come in all different formats -- some very short, some very detailed, some with a touch of humor (a favorite of mine!), but they're not always present.  This was a fun article to write so it's great to see it in print.

And Roger Sutton, Editor-in-Chief for the Horn Book, sent me the coolest note thanking me for contributing to this issue:
Just perfect, right?